Women are still in the clear minority among the financial sector's top decision-making bodies. According to DIW Berlin's Women Executives Barometer, at the end of 2016, 21 percent of the supervisory and administrative board members of the 100 largest banks were female. The number has stagnated...

Nach wie vor sind Frauen in Spitzengremien des Finanzsektors deutlich in der Minderheit. Dem Managerinnen-Barometer des DIW Berlin zufolge waren die Aufsichts- und Verwaltungsräte der 100 größten Banken Ende des Jahres 2016 zu gut 21 Prozent mit Frauen besetzt. Damit stagnierte der Anteil...

We investigate the role of economic transparency within the framework of one of Townsend’s models of ‘forecasting the forecasts of others’. The equilibrium has the property that ‘higher order beliefs’ are coordinated into a finite-dimensional setup that is amenable to address monetary...

This paper demonstrates how the real-time forecasting accuracy of different Brent oil price forecast models changes over time. We find considerable instability in the performance of all models evaluated and argue that relying on average forecasting statistics might hide important information on...

This article discusses a small scale pilot to harmonise three Bank of England statistical and regulatory data forms. The primary purpose of the pilot was to assess opportunities for improved operational efficiency in regulatory reporting. The broader purpose was to demonstrate how common data...

Beginning with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act of 1989, central banking reforms have focused on assigning clear goals for which monetary policy authorities can be held accountable. Inflation targeting regimes provide examples of such goal-based policy frameworks. An alternative approach,...

In this paper we study the evolution of central banks’ balance sheets in 12 advanced economies since 1900. We find that balance sheet size in most developed countries has fluctuated within rather clearly defined bands relative to output. Historically, clusters of big expansions and...

We examine “Forward Guidance Contracts”, which make central bankers’ utility contingent on the precision of interest-rate forecasts for some time. Such Forward Guidance Contracts are a exible commitment device and can improve economic performance when the economy is stuck in a liquidity...

The Dutch bank florin was the dominant currency in Europe during much of the 17th and 18th centuries. The florin, a fiat money, was managed by an early central bank, the Bank of Amsterdam. Using a new reconstruction of the Bank of Amsterdam's balance sheet, we analyze the florin's loss of...

We develop a comprehensive index of the transparency of central banks regarding their policy framework to promote financial stability for 110 countries from 2000 to 2011 and examine the determinants and effects of this transparency. We find that the degree of transparency increased in the 2000s,...